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20 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 starsAn alternative soundtrack to lost in translation
This is Their best album for a long time, no question. We aren't expecting Like Herod part 2, but what we get is a dreamy, electro guitar slow burner that affects in the same way as the quadruple guitars of old. I have been listening through my iPad sat in a hotel room in Philadelphia watching the snowpocalypse that cancelled my flight home. It is the perfect soundtrack...

3.0 out of 5 starsLove Mogwai, have everything they have done
Love Mogwai, have everything they have done, But this album is far to empty and Keyboard based for me. There is none of the build guitar cresendos that they normal have. One of my least favourite Mogwai albums

This is Their best album for a long time, no question. We aren't expecting Like Herod part 2, but what we get is a dreamy, electro guitar slow burner that affects in the same way as the quadruple guitars of old. I have been listening through my iPad sat in a hotel room in Philadelphia watching the snowpocalypse that cancelled my flight home. It is the perfect soundtrack. I appreciate the review of all the tracks someone posted, but this album can't be broken apart - it isn't a Now compilation, it is a whole.I have the vinyl waiting for me when I get home, and I am sure that will only add to the pleasure of this release.All the songs a beautiful builders, with an element of menace, just buy it.

A bias review from a Mogwai fan. I think taking time out to record the excellent sound track to the Returned has seemingly inspired them. Although I don't believe they have recorded a bad Album, Hardcore will never die but you will, was certainly not their best. There are instant classics like Re murdered and slow burners like No medicine for regret on this outing, that signal a real return to form. If this is your first Mogwai Album its not a bad place to start. If you want a comparison if un familiar with their music, just think Sigur Ros with a set of balls.

It's been a while since I've really been interested by a Mogwai album, not really been that excited by a release since Happy Songs for Happy People or Mr Beast but saw a poster for it and thought I'd give it a whirl.

Oh. My. Gosh. It is awesome. Out of this world.

Standout tracks are Remurdered, Hexon Bogon, Repelish and No Medicine for Regret, but to be honest, the whole album is fabulous and has been played on repeat since I bought it.

Absolutely fantastic. I bought the boxset and i can't praise it highly enough. Fantastic value for money. Fantastic album. The Boxset is truly fantastic. It's got 2 other vinyls plus the album on vinyl. The pink cassette is fantastic. The prints are really cool, i'm going to put one in a frame. The book is a masterpiece. My only criticism would be that the CD isn't a proper jewel case CD. But overall, an absolute bargain at £60! Definitely worth the purchase. Looking forward to seeing them in Glasgow!

This takes Mogwai in a slightly different direction from their previous work but once again does not fail to deliver.For me personally I found this album had more instant appeal where previous works took a few listens before you finally appreciated the absolute genius of this band.

'Rave Tapes' is the eighth studio album from the post-rock aficionados Mogwai (not including their soundtrack albums...)

It now seems a long time since the band burst onto the scene with their seminal debut Young Team; an all encompassing and post-modern approach for the OK Computer generation. In credit to their creativity the Glaswegian juggernaut continues unabated despite the sound falling slightly out of favour to more electronically infused offerings in the noughties.

Perhaps it is apt then that their sound take on an electronic guise? To die hard fans maybe not. In fact the vintage analogue synths that appear to be the backbone of some of the tracks on this album are overcome in the most part by their original sounds of evocative and elaborate soaring guitar work. A leopard never changes its spots.

Indeed, this album is one of the best in recent memory to approach their previous more sinister and apocalyptic sounds. Disappointingly none of the tracks seemed to appeal to me as much as the opener but the penultimate track (which would discretely slip into any of their original albums) soars above the rest of the album too. It is in truth a formula that the band find very difficult to move away from; but who cares if they do it so well!

Love Mogwai, have everything they have done, But this album is far to empty and Keyboard based for me. There is none of the build guitar cresendos that they normal have. One of my least favourite Mogwai albums

Mogwai aren’t a band you associate with the word ‘rave’, at least in the traditional sense. Unless the venue is a bunker in the Highlands, with attendees dancing at a greater level of tonal Zen than you or I, they have always been a band to make most sense on stage. Yet Rave Tapes is hardly a hindrance of a title for the eighth album by this please-don’t-label-them-a post-rock Glaswegian five piece, who all rise beyond their cap like an eternally maturing wine, pouring out new flights of fancy rich in experimentation.

Like the best from these guys, the opening track of Rave Tapes - “Heard about You Last Night” - recreates the elusive vibe of a musical jam, upon which everyone has decided to roll onto. Even though it’s played with the same raw, on the spot pace of a demo, the finalized work of The Delgados drummer and mighty Scottish producer Paul Savage means it sounds like nothing less than a master.

It’s interesting that even though the band were on their own leash for last year’s highly lauded Les Revenants soundtrack, the change in reins hasn’t meant that all that newfound love for slowly creeping, brooding noise has been dashed away from Rave Tapes. “Deesh”, “Remurdered” and “Simon Ferocious” - the latter of which even shares the name of one of the characters from the French TV drama - rely more on the tense sound of alien electronics than the inevitable loud noise, and provide a dosage of the different.

Ramping the volume of Rave Tapes up is highly advised for “Hexon Bogon” and “The Lord Is out of Control”, which smash symbol and synth respectively in the band’s signature, chaotic formula. It’s the sound we’ve been hearing for years, sure, but it’s like a signature scratched into the track, just for you. Speaking of the subliminal, the usual void vacant of lyricism is filled in “Repelish” by the mad theories of a conspiracy theorist, out to save us from the satanic danger of “Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven”. One would assume this is archive audio, but it appears to have been narrated specifically for Rave Tapes, which, with such sombre guitar, imply many layers of meaning (remember “Mogwai Fear Satan” according to their 1997 album Young Team? Read the signs people!).

Near the record’s end, “Blues Hour” grants the rare Mogwai joy of both piano by Barry Burns and clean vocals by Stuart Braithwaite. Whilst the band’s near exclusive instrumentals have shown us how to elevate rock music by taking out the assumed essential of singing, the reintroduction of such tender notes and words make this number the finest in the setlist. Wait until you can piece it with last track “The Lord Is Out of Control”’s ill-communicated vocoder, and recall an admiration for these musicians, who even after 19 years can still supersede their own lack of high expectation.